The S.E.C. accused Stenger and Quiros of perpetrating a “massive” fraud, misusing more than half the money raised. Quiros had allegedly funnelled much of it through a variety of shell companies, and back into his own pocket—pilfering fifty million dollars, for example, to pay his taxes and to buy a condominium in Trump Place, in Manhattan, among other things. Stenger was not accused of stealing money himself. But, according to the S.E.C., he had presented fraudulent job and revenue projections for the projects to encourage further investment, and then looked the other way as Quiros enriched himself. Peter Shumlin, Vermont’s then governor, who had once described Stenger and Quiros as “miracle-makers,” held a press conference at the statehouse, and said, “We all feel betrayed.”

Quiros and Stenger both settled their charges with the S.E.C. The following year, the U.S. Attorney for Vermont indicted the pair. Both pleaded guilty; Quiros was sentenced to five years in prison, for wire fraud and money laundering, and Stenger was sentenced to eighteen months, for submitting falsified documents. (Burstein paid a civil fine while admitting no wrongdoing.) Paul Van de Graaf, a prosecutor on the case, characterized it as one of the most significant in the state’s history. “Many people in Vermont could not believe that something so bad had happened here,” he said. “We needed to show not only that it could but that it did.”